Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for creating holes in proximal end faces of surgical needle materials, respectively.
A surgical needle of a so-called eyeless type is formed by creating a hole in the proximal end of a straight needle material along the axis thereof and then by bending the needle material into a suitable form. Before or after the above bending operation, a thread or gut for surgical suture is inserted at one end into the hole in the needle material, and the proximal end portion of the needle material is deformed by pressing to thereby fasten the inserted thread to the needle material.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 37918/81, Japanese Laid-Open (Kokai) Utility Model Application No. 43691/80, and Japanese Laid-Open (kokai) Patent Application Nos. 111294/77, 110532/84, 170590/85, 184485/85, 30250/86 and 140789/88 discloses apparatus for creating holes in needle materials. In such conventional apparatus, needle materials are moved one by one to a predetermined position where an energy beam such as a laser beam is applied to the center of the proximal end of each needle material to form a thread-insertion hole therein. With this method, however, the needle materials have to be brought into the above predetermined position one by one either manually or mechanically so that each needle material can be aligned with the axis of the energy beam. This has failed to provide a high productivity. Particularly when the needle materials to be processed are thin or when they are not circular in cross-section at the portion thereof extending from a pointed distal end to a point intermediate the opposite ends, the above positioning operation has been rather difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,043 which is related to the present invention describes that holes are formed respectively in a plurality of needle materials joined together into a bundle by metal of a low melting point. However, this U.S. Patent does not disclose an image pickup means and a moving mechanism for moving the group of needle materials.